Glen here…
…with a mini-Docback rounding up some interesting WHO-related developments, and a nice report on the Scavenger Big Finish audio from HornOrSilk.
I ******LOVE****** THIS FANMADE DOCTOR WHO TRAILER
Much better than BBC’s promos.
Here’s how it was accomplished…
BEYOND THE MARQUEE’s LINDALEE WAS AT GALLIFREY ONE…
…where WHOvians and stars offered-up their best Dalek impressions. Look for Colin Baker, Chris Hardwick, Arthur Darvill, Paul McGann and Daphne Ashbrook.
You can find more HERE, including Lindalee’s adventures with a Dalek cosplay dress.
UPCOMING DOCTOR WHO NOVELS!!
THE BLOOD CELL, THE CRAWLING TERROR, and SILHOUETTE are the titles of the first announced Capaldi-era books. They’re due on September 11 and more can be found about their plotlines HERE.
THE FIVE(ISH) DOCTORS REBOOT TO RECEIVE AN OFFICIAL HOME VIDEO RELEASE
As indicated by Colin Baker at DWAS (via DWN). Baker apparently indicated this would be part of a bigger set - one wonder if he’s referring to a rumored upcoming boxed set amassing all of last year’s 50th Anniversary shows/specials.
It’s a lovely and shatteringly clever piece - which you can view via the embed below. It’s awesome to see it getting some officially notice and attention - much deserved.
HORNORSILK REVIEWS THE SCAVENGER BIG FINISH AUDIO
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Big Finish 184 – Scavenger
By: William Gallagher
This story really wasn’t one for me. It’s an attempt to push “hard sci-fi” into Doctor Who, and, while I believe hard sci-fi has a place, even in Doctor Who, I always find it tends to be dull, and often self-contradictory, when executed without something else being involved with it. Hard sci-fi mixed in with other genres, as a part of an overall story, works; but otherwise, I find it tends to fail because it doesn’t have what it takes to tell a story all its own. And sadly, many of the elements which make this hard story sci-fi seem to fail when considering the norms of the established Doctor Who universe.
The year is 2071. Earth’s atmosphere is crowded with space junk. When the Doctor and Flip find themselves aboard a space station while the Salvage-2 ship is in space, taking care of the debris, all hell breaks loose as accident after accident occurs. The space station is hit. The Doctor, after going aboard his TARDIS, heads to Earth control, to try to deal with the situation, while Flip, on board the station, finds herself and the crew abandoning the station, going out in space, and trying to find a new place to be for their safety.
In the midst of the space debris is an ancient spaceship, Scavenger. It awakens, looking for someone to take control of its systems: an occupant whose consciousness will merge with the ship as their body dies. It’s done this before, and it will do so again. And, of course, it’s Flip who is taken in by it. In Scavenger, she is able to talk to and interact with the consciousness it took over last, over five hundred years before, Anarkali. On Earth, Anarkali’s lover, Salim, had encountered the ship at the same time as she did, both were scanned by Scavenger, with Anarkali being the one taken over; but the process which checked them over gave Salim, long life, and he has been looking for the spaceship and his love ever since (and is on Earth, actively involved with the space program with the Salvage-2 mission, a mission which has its setbacks and corruption, as we find out throughout the audio adventure).
The Doctor must find a way to rescue Flip and prevent Scavenger from causing havoc. This, more or less, is the story; we are shown the impact of Scavenger in the lives of Salim and Anarkali, the Doctor and Flip, and for Earth in general. We are introduced to many in the space program on Earth and in Space, each with their own story. I do not want to detail those plots, because they are secondary, and also, because they are what give this audio any sense of depth. Nonetheless, a one thing I do want to mention: The Doctor and Flip on the space station befriended Jyoti Cutler, played by Sarah Jane Adventure’s Anjli Mohindra. While played competently, and Jyoti continues throughout the story to be a pivotal character, it feels a bit of a waste to bring her into the audios for this story: I would rather they had found a way to bring the Sarah Jane characters into the audios.
My main problem with the story lies with Scavenger itself. It’s said to be looking for people, and objects, to take them and assimilate them into itself. Once Flip is in it, she is being assimilated. This mission makes very little sense to me. Who created the ship? What is its ultimate purpose? What is truly going on here? But this isn’t even what bothers me the most. The most obvious solution, the Doctor just takes the TARDIS, lands inside Scavenger around Flip, and takes off, is said to be impossible because the Doctor believes Scavenger would assimilate the TARDIS if he did that.
Scavenger is higher tech than the TARDIS? I can’t believe that. Once again, what would be the purpose? Unless it is some sort of Time Lord observation ship, and then, if it were, the Doctor would then be able to find the means to control it and make it stop. Even without it being a Time Lord ship, I find it hard to believe, with its mission, it is so high tech that the Doctor can’t figure out many ways to put it under his control.
Also, I can’t help but feel that the Scavenger feels like a variation on the Cybermen. There is a “been there, done that before” feel which comes from it. And this isn’t coming from a nice sense of nostalgia. It is assimilating what it finds of value. It incorporates people into itself. That, more or less, is its mission. It’s as if the Cybermen decided the human shape was no longer necessary and decided to become spaceships.
Finally, I have a problem with the ending. It’s supposed to be a cliffhanger. It’s supposed to make us feel for the Doctor and his companion. But once again, I’m feeling little excitement with Flip. I’ve not found her character to be interesting. She is, to me, the equivalent of Big Finish’s Mel: someone whose potential has not been met, and whose stories just seem to make the character rather generic. I’m sure others don’t think that way. But that’s how she has become for me. I’ve been trying to see something about her that makes her companion worthy. I’m sure there is something. We just need to see it. So, when the story ends with a cliff hanger, making us wonder what is going to happen with the Doctor and Flip’s adventures, I just don’t care.
I give this a 6/10. There are elements within it which are enjoyable. But I felt the story overlong and the parts I liked the most dealt with the least.
— HornOrSilk
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Glen Oliver
"Merrick"
